Sun, 27 August, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

¹⁰ I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. ¹¹ For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. ¹² What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” ¹³ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? ¹⁴ I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, ¹⁵ so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. ¹⁶ (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) ¹⁷ For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

We often think of the church in the age of the apostles as an ideal church: pure and uncorrupted. But as we read the epistles of the New Testament, and the letters to the Corinthian church in particular, we get a picture of a church that had some serious problems. In today’s reading, after a very brief opening, Paul immediately gets to the first issue. There are divisions in the church as the members align themselves with different leaders.

What do we learn from this?

There have always been problems in the church. There were problems in the First Century and there are problems in the Twenty-first Century. As long as people are sinful, we will always have problems in the church. Since we won’t be purified of our sins until we are glorified in heaven at our death or Christ’s return, we will have to live with trouble to some extent in every church.

Do we have divisions in the church today? Yes, we are guilty of the same sin for which Paul chastised the Corinthian church. At a major level, each denomination is a division in the church. There are thousands of denominations, reflecting the very divisive nature of the church today.

At one level, denominations are good. Because each denomination is a grouping of people who hold to common doctrine, that means that individuals with differing beliefs aren’t forced to fight over doctrine in the local church body. They can instead find a church that holds to the doctrines they believe and unite with those believers. When I became convinced that Christians should baptize their children, instead of causing problem by trying to change the local church I was attending to accept that doctrine, I just quietly left that denomination and joined a paedo-baptistic denomination. I can now work together with the people in this local church body without having to argue about who should be baptized, and my previous church is spared the turmoil of a doctrinal fight.

But we still have to admit that the cause of denominations is sin. When we believe wrong doctrine, we are sinning.

Using my paedo-baptism example: it is either right to baptize the infant children of believers, or it is wrong. It is either right to not baptize the infant children of believers, or it is wrong to withhold baptism from them. Let’s not mince words: if it is wrong to baptize babies, then it is a sin when we do so. But if it is wrong to withhold baptism from our covenant children, then it is a sin if we don’t baptize them.

When we hold to wrong doctrine, no matter how sincerely we are in our beliefs, we sin.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Thanks be to God that even us divisive Christians can be saved! Even as we hold to wrong doctrines, God saves us. For we are not saved for holding to right doctrines. When we get to heaven, we will not have a systematic doctrine test, and all those who get 100 % will be admitted. Thank God for his mercy upon us. That is not how we gain access to heaven.

Our entrance to heaven is based upon what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. He saves us by His life and death. That is applied to us by faith, as we trust God alone for the salvation He provides. That is how we are saved. Not by what we do, or by what doctrine we hold to, but by our faith in the God who has done all for us.